EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures is putting together a package that finally should give movie treatment to the ‘60s TV series Hawaii Five-O, with Spider-Man: Brand New Day helmer Destin Daniel Cretton leading the wave.
The Dish hears that Cretton will develop to direct, with Chris Bremner (Bad Boys for Life) to write the script and Noah Oppenheim (Jackie) producing.
The studio had no comment, and the wave on this one is just beginning to build momentum. But what a great idea for big-screen treatment of a seminal series, down to the theme song and tropical vistas. Created by Leonard Freeman, the 1968-80 CBS series starred Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett, the no-nonsense lawman who headed a state police task force in Hawaii. Done right, there is a great leading-man role opportunity here for a film shot in a most beautiful location, and franchise potential for the crime procedural premise.
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I’ve reported in the past on attempts to mount a movie, led by the late George Litto (Freeman’s rep) to bring the line “Book ‘em, Danno” to movie screens. They could never quite figure it out because of lawsuits with CBS and rights issues that led instead to the hit 2010-20 CBS TV series remake that starred Alex Loughlin, Scott Caan, Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park.
Cretton might be about the hottest director in Hollywood after helming the most recent iteration of Spider-Man, which has put the franchise back on firm footing for Sony Pictures and cemented the star-power bona fides of Tom Holland and Zendaya. Brand New Day has been webbed atop the weekend box office rankings since its July 31 release, closing in on the billion-dollar domestic gross mark and reaching $2.4 billion in global ticket sales. Cretton burst on the scene when he was tapped to direct Shang-Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings and turned in a crowd-pleasing hit. He’d previously directed Short Term 12 and the adaptation of Jeannette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle.
Cretton has a lot of irons in the fire, including the inevitable next Spidey installment and a Naruto film. Stay tuned.
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